Speaking of Vitriolic Speech......

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


In the wake of all these charges about "overheated rhetoric" and "vitriolic speech" that come from the right and supposedly led to the Tucson shooting, let's take a look at the overheated rhetoric and vitriolic speech that comes from the left.

Of course, we all know that for 8 years, George W. Bush was called everything in the book by his detractors. It began when he was accused of having stolen the election in Florida (all he really did was survive an attempt by Al Gore to steal said election.) On the day, Bush was inaugurated, his car was pelted with eggs as he was driven to the White House. He was accused of being a draft dodger by the likes of Michael Moore and Bill Maher, none of whom ever served a day in the military, reserve or otherwise. He was and is accused of orchestrating 9-11. A movie was produced entitled, " The Assassination of George W. Bush". In addition, Air America radio host, Randi Rhodes, once said on air that (they) should put Bush on a boat, sail him out on the water and do to him what they did to Fredo in "The Godfather".

"Comparing Bush and his family to the Corleones of "Godfather" fame, Air America host Randi Rhodes reportedly unleashed this zinger during her Monday night broadcast: "Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw. "

Rhodes then imitated the sound of a gunshot."
(NewsMax.com)

Let's go back to Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton. During the impeachment hearings, Alec Baldwin, who knows a thing or two about over-heated rhetoric, made a spectacle out of himself when he appeared on a talk show and advocated that Henry Hyde and all his family should be killed. (Of course, it was all done in good humor.)

Don't forget the things that have been said about Dick Cheney. Left-wing radio talk show host, Mike Malloy, has said this about the former vice-president:

"I’m not going to feel anything but intense gratitude that this miserable bastard has stepped off this earthly coil. Really! And I’m sure on a much lesser scale when I die, there will be some of you right-wing flip tops who will feel the same way, I frankly don’t give a damn!

....Cheney is responsible, Cheney is a murderer, he’s a killer, he’s a torturer, he is evil personified! He is a walking mass of horror and when he’s gone this planet will be cleaner!"

(Source: Blugrass Pundit)

Today, Larry Elder, a black, conservative talk show host, told his radio audience about the time, Jeanine Garofalo referred to him as a racist, douche bag, and fascist. She, of course, is remembered for telling an MSNBC audience that President Obama;'s opponents are "straight up racists." Michael Moore also recently said that those who are against Obama's policies don't want to have a black man in the White House. Elder is not the only black conservative who gets these labels. Remember when Condoleeza Rice was referred to as an "Aunt Jemima" and "plantation house slave" for President Bush? Remember the caricatures?

And then there is your friend and mine, Keith Olbermann. Which outrageous statement should I pick out of the huge grab sack of Keithisms? I think the best is when he called tea party folks, "slack-jawed tea-baggers" with all of its sexual innuendo, which he delighted in using on air.

Talk about dishonesty, how about New York Times columnist Paul Krugman? This is a man who won the Nobel Prize for Economics, yet changes his economic theories according to who is in the White House. Krugman is quoting Michele Bachmann as saying she wants her followers to be "armed and dangerous". What she really said was that she wanted her followers to be armed with information and dangerous in debate.

Question: Who said, "God Damn America"?

a- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

b- Osama bin Laden

c- Vladimir Putin

d -Jeremiah Wright

The answer may be all four, but one is an American-Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for 20 years.

Here's another. Who said, "If they bring a knife, we'll bring a gun."?

a Mack the Knife

b Charles Manson

c Esteban Nunez

d Jerod Loughner

e Barack Obama

The answer is "e".

Surely by now, you have all seen the Sarah Palin maps of the USA with election targets marked in cross-hairs, right? Here it is.

Here is a map the DLC put out in 2004 using bulls'eyes.

If you want to see and hear five straight hours of vitriolic speech, just tune into MSNBC beginning with "Butter and Egg man" Ed Schultz and continuing with Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and finally Lawrence O'Donnell before finally "mellowing out" with re-runs of "Lock Up". It is five hours of repeating the same stuff over and over-attack after attack after attack.

Hypocrisy? This is not just a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The kettle isn't even black.